The Royals suffered a four game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers with a 5-3 loss on Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The Kansas City Royals should be in clear sell mode with the trade deadline tomorrow.
The Kansas City Royals fell to 49-55 with Sunday’s 5-3 loss, and are now 12.0 games behind the AL Central leading Indians. The Rangers improved to 62-44 and extended their lead to 6.0 games over the Astros in the AL West.
Sigh. The 2016 season has officially hit the iceberg with the KC Royals closing out the month of July with a four game losing streak and a 7-19 record in the month. There is no longer any reasonable hope of a playoff berth this season, and Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore needs to approach to August 1 trade deadline on Monday with the intent to help his club for 2017.
Of course, with relievers Luke Hochevar and Wade Davis going on the disabled list in the last few days, he doesn’t have many attractive assets to sell.
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The Kansas City Royals took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning with a home run from Eric Hosmer. That lead lasted exactly three batters until Kendrys Morales made the last out of the KC Royals half of the first, and Texas leadoff hitter Delino DeShields walked before Nomar Maraza blasted a two-run shot off of KC sacrificial lamb Dillon Gee.
The Rangers extended their lead with a two-run dinger by Mitch Moreland in the fourth inning to put Texas ahead 4-1. Moreland has murdered Kansas City Royals pitching in this series, going 8 for 13 with four home runs and six RBIs. I bet Moreland wishes he could face KC Royals pitchers for 162 games a season so he could break Barry Bonds’ home run record.
The Royals did manage to score two runs in the fifth inning on Drew Butera‘s solo home run and Alcides Escobar‘s RBI single to drive in Jarrod Dyson from third base. But the rally turned out to be a futile gesture. Texas scored an insurance run in the seventh against rookie pitcher Matt Strahm, who arrived from AA NW Arkansas just before the game to make his major-league debut.
Next: What Royals Fans Can Expect From Matt Strahm
The KC Royals are playing like they’ve decided to show the new bandwagon fans who jumped on for the team’s two consecutive World Series runs just what things were like before 2013. Hey, at least those newbies can relate to the rest of us now.
That’s something positive, at least. Right?